Live Cinema Performance: Mountain Plague (2015)
Originally a short novel written by Malaysian writer Li Zi Shu , Mountain Plague tells a story during the demolition of Malayan Communists by British Army after the end of World War II, through flashbacks of incidents happened between grandfather and Wen Yi, a fictitious legendary captain. However, Mountain Plague, the live cinema performance did not intend to adapt, re-narrate or re-stage story in the original novel. On the contrary, it attempts to construct a conversation, as well as to question, challenge and even turning over the original novel.
Often times, when looking at Malayan Communist in the Cold War era, we tend to romanticised them as “losers” in a gigantic turmoil, they were imagined as tragic heroes in the forest. Blank pages in history were fill with certain kind of romanticism, as if the forgotten troops, who were being chased by the British Army, neglected by the China Communist, and eventually,left only is a disappointed and lonely shadow in the Malaysia- Thailand border. However, to question the notion of “loser” is very important in this performance. The narrative of Mountain Plague was being violently dispelled. Phantoms of history were unleashed from ruptures. Angelus Novus and storm of history by Walter Benjamin became a kind of presence. Multi layers conversation of history was re-initiated in a space of the colonial past (Qidong Poetry Salon was built during Japanese colonisation in Taiwan). As if the “Imperfect Cinema” argued by Cuban director Juan García Espinosa, “It is an answer, but also a question, a process to reveal its’ own answer through questioning.”
Using descriptive writings in the original novel as sound score, performed live as foley sound by guest sound artist duo JacAl Map, Mountain Plague, the Live Cinema Performance, tried to reverse our ideologies on image. Rather than feeding passive audience with the visible one, Mountain Plague attempted to provoke and summon images in our consciousness through construction of sound, an elements often times seen as the “invisible”.
Conceptualised and Performed by Au Sow Yee
Live Foley Sound by JacAl Map (Malaysia)
Performed in Qidong Poetry Salon, Taipei, Taiwan
Originally a short novel written by Malaysian writer Li Zi Shu , Mountain Plague tells a story during the demolition of Malayan Communists by British Army after the end of World War II, through flashbacks of incidents happened between grandfather and Wen Yi, a fictitious legendary captain. However, Mountain Plague, the live cinema performance did not intend to adapt, re-narrate or re-stage story in the original novel. On the contrary, it attempts to construct a conversation, as well as to question, challenge and even turning over the original novel.
Often times, when looking at Malayan Communist in the Cold War era, we tend to romanticised them as “losers” in a gigantic turmoil, they were imagined as tragic heroes in the forest. Blank pages in history were fill with certain kind of romanticism, as if the forgotten troops, who were being chased by the British Army, neglected by the China Communist, and eventually,left only is a disappointed and lonely shadow in the Malaysia- Thailand border. However, to question the notion of “loser” is very important in this performance. The narrative of Mountain Plague was being violently dispelled. Phantoms of history were unleashed from ruptures. Angelus Novus and storm of history by Walter Benjamin became a kind of presence. Multi layers conversation of history was re-initiated in a space of the colonial past (Qidong Poetry Salon was built during Japanese colonisation in Taiwan). As if the “Imperfect Cinema” argued by Cuban director Juan García Espinosa, “It is an answer, but also a question, a process to reveal its’ own answer through questioning.”
Using descriptive writings in the original novel as sound score, performed live as foley sound by guest sound artist duo JacAl Map, Mountain Plague, the Live Cinema Performance, tried to reverse our ideologies on image. Rather than feeding passive audience with the visible one, Mountain Plague attempted to provoke and summon images in our consciousness through construction of sound, an elements often times seen as the “invisible”.
Conceptualised and Performed by Au Sow Yee
Live Foley Sound by JacAl Map (Malaysia)
Performed in Qidong Poetry Salon, Taipei, Taiwan
16mm Film Projectors + Live Foley Sound
Performance Except: https://vimeo.com/190298339
photo by Lin Yu-Quan